Easy Christmas fairy cakes with a white icing glaze, topped festive sprinkles.
The vanilla sponge is light and fluffy, and the kids will love decorating the simple fairy cakes for Christmas! You might also like my easy Christmas cake muffins!
Making and decorating these fairy cakes is a fun rainy-day Christmas activity!
I let my children go mad with the sprinkles...and icing (as you can tell from the photos!).
The festive fairy cakes are perfect for Christmas parties, buffets, and bake sales.
👩🍳 Love Christmas baking? Try my easy mincemeat crumble slices too!
Jump to:
✔️ Why you'll love this recipe!
- Easy fairy cake recipe.
- A fun Christmas activity for kids.
- The sponges are freezer friendly.
- Recipe can easily be doubled.
🛒 Ingredient notes
Butter - unsalted butter that has been softened. You can also use soft margarine such as stork.
Sugar - caster sugar or golden caster sugar.
Eggs - 2 large eggs at room temperature.
Vanilla - 1 teaspoon of good quality vanilla extract.
Flour - self-raising flour helps the sponges to rise.
Icing Sugar - mixed with a little water for the icing drizzle.
Sprinkles - festive sprinkles of your choice.
🔪 Instructions
The recipe card with ingredient quantities and detailed instructions can be found at the bottom of the post
One: Preheat the oven to 180C (160 fan/ Gas 4) and line a 12 hole bun tin with paper cases.
Two: In a large bowl, cream together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Three: Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.
Four: Fold in the flour then spoon into the paper cases.
Five: Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
Six: For the icing, whisk together the icing sugar and water (add the water gradually as you may not need all of it) until you get a thick drizzling consistency. Spoon the icing onto the tops of the fairy cakes and finish with the sprinkles. Allow the icing to set for 1 hour before serving.
💭 Expert tips
- Make sure the eggs are at room temperature to ensure the cakes rise.
- Don't overfill the paper cases. Equally distribute the mixture between 12 cases. It won't look like a lot of mixture in each case, but they will rise!
🍴 Serving suggestions
Serve the Christmas fairy cakes at festive gatherings and parties. They always make an appearance at our Boxing Day buffet, alongside my puff pastry sausage rolls, Christmas tiffin, Christmas star biscuits, and cranberry and white chocolate blondies!
📖 Variations
- Make chocolate fairy cakes by replacing 25g of the flour with cocoa powder.
- Flavour the sponge with orange zest or cinnamon instead of vanilla.
- Decorate the tops with a buttercream icing or melted chocolate.
- Add milk chocolate chips, dried cranberries, or raisins to the fairy cakes.
🥡 Storage
Store: Once cooled and decorated, place the fairy cakes in an airtight container or cake tin. They will keep for up to 3 days. They are best eaten on the day they are made though.
Freeze: The fairy cakes can be frozen for up to 3 months minus the white icing. Defrost at room temperature before serving.
❓ Frequently asked questions
Cupcakes are generally bigger than fairy cakes and frosted with buttercream rather than a simple drizzle icing.
If there's simply too much flour and not enough butter, the fairy cakes will be dry.
The cakes will keep in a cake tin for up to 3 days. The cakes can also be frozen for up to three months.
😋 More Christmas baking recipes
- Mincemeat Muffins
- Frangipane Mince Pies
- Puff Pastry Mince Pies
- Puff Pastry Mincemeat Pinwheels
- Mincemeat Blondies
- Chocolate Orange Brownies
Don't forget to subscribe to the newsletter to stay up to date with what's cooking in the Effortless Foodie kitchen! You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram too!
Recipe
Easy Christmas Fairy Cakes with Sprinkles
Ingredients
- 100 g Butter softened
- 100 g Caster Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 100 g Self Raising Flour
For the icing
- 300 g Icing Sugar sieved
- 2-3 tablespoon Water
- 4 tablespoon Sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (160 fan/ Gas 4) and line a 12 hole bun tin with paper cases.
- In a large bowl, cream together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy.100 g Butter, 100 g Caster Sugar
- Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.2 Eggs, 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- Fold in the flour then spoon the mixture into the paper cases.100 g Self Raising Flour
- Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
- For the icing, whisk together the icing sugar and water (add the water gradually as you may not need all of it) until you get a thick drizzling consistency. Spoon the icing onto the tops of the fairy cakes and finish with the sprinkles. Allow the icing to set for 1 hour before serving.300 g Icing Sugar, 2-3 tablespoon Water, 4 tablespoon Sprinkles
Notes
- Make sure the eggs are at room temperature to ensure the cakes rise.
- Don't overfill the paper cases. Equally distribute the mixture between 12 cases. It won't look like a lot of mixture in each case, but they will rise!
- Make chocolate fairy cakes by replacing 25g of the flour with cocoa powder.
- Flavour the sponge with orange zest or cinnamon instead of vanilla.
- Decorate the tops with a buttercream icing or melted chocolate.
- Add milk chocolate chips, dried cranberries, or raisins to the fairy cakes.
Sheila
A lovely simple Christmas recipe to make with kids. The sponges were light and fluffy!